Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

Speaking as a Deputy who has raised this aspect of education on a number of occasions over the years, I believe few issues in education are as important as dealing with special educational needs. I commend my colleague, Deputy Brian Hayes, on bringing this issue to the fore. From my experience of dealing with many constituents who have children with special educational needs, I have concluded that there is only one cardinal sin in education. There is something seriously wrong with an educational system which consigns a boy or girl to achieving less than his or her full potential or failing to fulfil his or her God given talents. This cardinal sin is committed consistently all over the country.

Let us imagine a boy or girl who cannot keep up in class or make or keep friends and slips through the net as a result. He or she will begin to hate going to school, will build up the prejudices one associates with children in this position and will eventually come to hate society. I do not need to tell the House what is written on the forehead of such children. I can assure Deputies it is not "University College Galway" but is much more likely to be "Mountjoy Prison Dublin". This is an awful problem.

While I do not want to bring politics into the issue, when I see Ministers award themselves salary increases of €38,000 per annum at a time when it is impossible either to secure the services of professionals to assess children and determine or identify their special educational needs or pay for educational psychologists and other professionals to look after these children, I must conclude that this society could hardly be more unfair.

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